Maharashtra cabinet slashes entertainment tax on DTH
Meher Khanna - Televisionpoint.com
The Maharashtra state cabinet has slashed the entertainment tax on Direct-to-Home, DTH services to bring it at par with Cable TV and to promote it.
Accordingly, every DTH owner will be charged RS 30, a month for entertainment tax, instead of previous RS 90, in cities governed by A grade municipal bodies like Mumbai. In B and C grade municipal bodies, the tax has been fixed at RS 20 (down from RS 60) and RS 10 (down from RS 30) respectively.
Vilasrao Deshmukh, Chief Minister has announced this, after the cabinet meeting, he said that the "Maharashtra government wants to end the monopoly of cable operators who have held consumers to ransom for years."
R R Patil, Deputy Chief Minister has ordered a survey of the actual number of cable connections in the entire state, he said the state loses huge amount of money just because cable operators do not report the exact number of connections they are catering to. This huge sum of money can be otherwise collected in the form of entertainment tax, he says.
He adds, "One is shocked to know that the official number of connections in the state is just 23 lakh. We have already completed the survey in two districts and found that there is under-reporting by nearly 60 per cent. We are emphasizing in the Yavatmal, Amravati, Nandad districts specifically."
Meanwhile, R R Patil has also said that multiplexes which do not screen Marathi cinemas will see a severe action and that the government will cancel their tax waiver if they do not show Marathi films in their cinema halls.
The Maharashtra state cabinet has slashed the entertainment tax on Direct-to-Home, DTH services to bring it at par with Cable TV and to promote it.
Accordingly, every DTH owner will be charged RS 30, a month for entertainment tax, instead of previous RS 90, in cities governed by A grade municipal bodies like Mumbai. In B and C grade municipal bodies, the tax has been fixed at RS 20 (down from RS 60) and RS 10 (down from RS 30) respectively.
Vilasrao Deshmukh, Chief Minister has announced this, after the cabinet meeting, he said that the "Maharashtra government wants to end the monopoly of cable operators who have held consumers to ransom for years."
R R Patil, Deputy Chief Minister has ordered a survey of the actual number of cable connections in the entire state, he said the state loses huge amount of money just because cable operators do not report the exact number of connections they are catering to. This huge sum of money can be otherwise collected in the form of entertainment tax, he says.
He adds, "One is shocked to know that the official number of connections in the state is just 23 lakh. We have already completed the survey in two districts and found that there is under-reporting by nearly 60 per cent. We are emphasizing in the Yavatmal, Amravati, Nandad districts specifically."
Meanwhile, R R Patil has also said that multiplexes which do not screen Marathi cinemas will see a severe action and that the government will cancel their tax waiver if they do not show Marathi films in their cinema halls.
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